Modification of Lofland's colorimetric semiautomated serum triglyceride determination, assessed by an enzymatic glycerol determination.

Erroneously high values for serum triglyceride levels obtained with the semiautomated method of Lofland were found to be due to contamination of the isopropanol extracts with glucose or other carbohydrate. Treatment of the isopropanol extracts with a mixture of copper sulfate and calcium hydroxide removed the contaminating glucose. Analysis of the glucose-free extracts by either the semiautomated or manual colorimetric method gave values in good agreement with each other and with those obtained by a new specific enzymatic method. The simple modification described in this paper obviates the necessity for the more expensive automated fluorometric apparatus.